Learning

Former senior executive with major U.S. foundations appointed after national search.

https://www.citybiz.co/article/366055/chris-decardy-named-president-of-the-heinz-endowments/

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chris-decardy-named-president-of-the-heinz-endowments-301716812.html

https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/inno/stories/Inno-insights/2023/01/09/rand-report-local-tech-scene-workforce-diversity.html

https://www.wesa.fm/identity-community/2023-01-09/heinz-endowments-name-chris-decardy-as-new-president

https://triblive.com/business/heinz-endowments-names-new-president-after-national-search/

https://www.post-gazette.com/business/career-workplace/2023/01/09/heinz-endowments-president-chris-decardy/stories/202301090056

https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2023/01/09/heinz-endowments-announces-new-leader.html

Heinz family ends 10-month national search to replace former president Grant Oliphant.

https://nextpittsburgh.com/latest-news/the-heinz-endowments-names-chris-decardy-as-new-president/

https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2022/12/27/franco-harris-heinz-endowments-philanthropy-promise-character/stories/202212270006

https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/2022/12/26/franco-harris-heinz-promise/stories/202212230099

https://triblive.com/opinion/carl-kurlander-franco-harris-a-true-hero/

https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2022/12/14/pittsburgh-business-group-on-health-mike-stancil.html

https://www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-scholar-house-generational-wealth-higher-ed-diamonte-walker/

https://nextpittsburgh.com/pittsburgh-for-all/gwens-girls-leads-new-call-center-to-keep-students-out-of-the-legal-system/

For Doris Harvin-Taylor, navigating the options for schools in Pittsburgh is “exhausting.” Her 12-year-old son Joshua attends The Neighborhood Academy, a private college preparatory school. She and her husband, Kwame Taylor, like the student diversity and

Choosing K-12 schools can present a dilemma to Black families in the Pittsburgh region, according to new research from local nonprofits and the University of Pittsburgh funded by The Heinz Endowments.

The University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Sustainable Business celebrates its three-year anniversary in October 2022 with ongoing commitments from 12 global and regional companies, a coalition dedicated to cleaner energy in the Ohio Valley, and expanded opportunities

As a father of four, Tim Briggs considered it common sense that schools would test for radon.

Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, there’s a lot of money available for education right now. But U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona says public school districts must be strategic and innovative to create opportunities

For her new job at the Birmingham Foundation, Michelle Figlar is relocating from an office in a gleaming Downtown skyscraper to digs in Knoxville, a low-income community in the city’s Hilltop section.

The Duquesne City School District may have found a cheat code to provide more opportunities for its students.

“So, do we have August Wilson’s archives?” That was the first question Kornelia Tancheva asked upon arriving in Pittsburgh five years ago as the new director of the University of Pittsburgh library system and its new

The University of Pittsburgh School of Law is lending a hand to help Afghan refugees secure asylum.

The start of the new school year is weeks away, but at Duquesne Elementary School a group of students was already in a kindergarten classroom in late July learning how to take turns, raise their

The district will work with the Just Discipline Project, which will train faculty members and students on methods of discipline besides suspension and expulsions.

The Heinz Endowments approved a $2 million grant to The Pittsburgh Promise. It brings the foundation’s total giving to the scholarship fund to more than $20 million, Pittsburgh Promise said on Thursday.

According to Domestic Violence Services of Southwestern Pennsylvania, about 1 in 3 women and 1 in 10 men will be victims of domestic violence.

Affordable and equitable child care is critical for early childhood development and family economic stability, and yet quality child care options are inaccessible to many.

Come the fall of 2024, Homewood will be “home” to a new, state-of-the-art, $20 million facility with pretty much any health-related service one would need.

After a series of pandemic-related delays, the Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books will debut Sat., May 14.

Dr. Kathi R. Elliott, daughter to the founder of the organization Gwen’s Girls, and its current executive director, has a vivid understanding of the need for this organization because, as she said, “I was the

The story of Terezin is now being told in an award-winning virtual reality documentary called “By the Waters of Babylon,” showing this month at the Buhl Planetarium at Carnegie Science Center.

Three years ago, The Heinz Endowments, Henry L. Hillman Foundation and PNC Foundation partnered with the PCHE to begin the process of bringing the Family Scholar House model, based in Louisville, to Pittsburgh.

Kelly Rottmund works to ensure that the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh offers kids and teens more than just books: At the library, they find crafts, games, technology and more. 

The tutoring program that connected the duo was designed by ASSET Inc. to provide “high-dosage” tutoring to students in grades K-12 in under-resourced neighborhoods and to give student teachers an opportunity to make up for

The Pittsburgh Scholar House — a new nonprofit that aims to increase support for single-parent families in pursuit of higher education — announced Thursday that it has appointed Diamonte Walker as its inaugural CEO.

Radio DJ Kiki Brown was sitting in the conference room at Audacy’s Pittsburgh studios when she heard the news: The network was buying WAMO and restoring it as the city’s premier urban radio station.

When Megan Rose became director of the Center for Women in late 2019, she was charged with leading what she called “a strategic refresh” of the program. 

Kylie Vergnola of Guys Mills is one of four Thiel College students making their first international trips this summer after they were selected for the Vira I. Heinz Scholarship for Women in Global Leadership.

On Friday evening at the Carnegie Museum of Art, April 1, 2022, The Advanced Leadership Institute (TALI) was pleased to present the first graduating class of its newest leadership development program – the Emerging Leaders

Pressley Ridge, a nonprofit agency based in McCandless, announced Wednesday that it received a $10 million unrestricted gift from billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Many philanthropists and promise backers dream of more than just sending kids to college. To them, promise programs can be elixirs for economic and work-force development, poverty, and a community’s well-being.

Freelance videographer and photographer Nick Childers already had planned to leave his home in Polish Hill for a reporting trip to Ukraine when Russia invaded on Feb 24.

In Pittsburgh, Black infants are more than four times as likely than white babies to die before they reach their first birthday.

The hiring of a prestigious global firm to remake an old Hazelwood coke plant is another signal of the growing influence of tech in the region’s real estate development, experts say.

Like most newly elected chief executives, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey is entitled to a bit of a political honeymoon. 

Global real estate developer and owner of Rockefeller Center in New York City and Mission Rock in San Francisco to lead transformation of 178-acre former urban brownfield into a neighborhood centered on innovation, sustainability and

Global real estate developer and owner of Rockefeller Center in New York City and Mission Rock in San Francisco to lead transformation of 178-acre former urban brownfield into a neighborhood centered on innovation, sustainability and

Tishman Speyer has redeveloped part of the Bronx, Potsdamer Platz in Berlin and a steel mill in Beijing.  Now it will get its shot at an old coke plant in Hazelwood.

Last week, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey announced that he was putting an end to a controversial plan to build a shuttle link between Oakland and Hazelwood. 

The streets, trails and sidewalks of the 178-acre Hazelwood Green site in Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood neighborhood were completed in early 2020, and the area has since been awaiting finalized development plans to transform the former steel

After the sudden death of John Heinz — a U.S. Senator and heir to the Heinz family’s food conglomerate fortune — his wife, Teresa Heinz, asked the senator’s press secretary to join the staff at

James Mellon Walton, who established five new galleries at Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and led one of the city’s major foundations, usually avoided the spotlight.

Forty-five high school seniors from 22 Allegheny County high schools, and more than 30 education, industry and community collaborators, became one team as the Readiness Institute (RI) at Penn State launched its inaugural Summer Program

Race-based discrimination represents an ongoing public health crisis in the US, manifested by wide-ranging disparities in youth health, mental health, and violence exposure. However, studies of racial discrimination often neglect experiences of identity-based bullying (IBB)

For Chelcee Carter, of Cranberry, a week’s notice that her child’s daycare was closing down for the summer was not nearly enough.

For three days this week, Penn State Greater Allegheny's employees will share their idea of a BeGreater Community with 45 rising high school seniors as the campus hosts the Readiness Institute at Penn State's Summer

Pittsburgh’s child care programs, which were hard hit by shutdowns during the pandemic, are getting a $4.4 million boost from The Heinz Endowments.

Gina Evans, program officer for the McElhattan Foundation, was grateful she could work from her home in Edgewood during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rebecca “Becky” Mercatoris was announced Tuesday as the first director of Allegheny County’s new Department of Children Initiatives.

Readiness Institute wants to collect our hopes and dreams — and send them to the moon. Literally.

Penn State has announced the appointment of Justin W. Aglio as senior director of the Readiness Institute (RI) at Penn State, a unit of Penn State Outreach.

The Heinz Endowments approved a $450,000 grant that will be awarded to Penn State Outreach in January to operate Penn State's Readiness Institute, which was launched this fall.

37 organizations receive $5.75 million in arts and creative learning funding

The COVID-19 pandemic has lead to the loss of up to 15,600 child care spots in Allegheny County, and could push parents of young children out of the workforce if those losses become permanent, according

September is Black Girls Equity Month in Allegheny County, and Gwen’s Girls is ready to celebrate — and educate. Throughout the next 30 days, the nonprofit organization will recognize young Black women who are making

It’s not unusual to see an old church in Pittsburgh reborn as something else, from housing to a brewpub. But this is a first: the former St. Mary Magdalene church in Homestead is getting new

Many of the nation’s 57 million K-12 students will spend at least part of the 2020-2021 school year either dealing with distance learning or a hybrid model that keeps them out of classrooms several days

Six foundations combined to award the Allegheny Intermediate Unit more than $1.5 million to help support local school districts with educational challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Allegheny County school districts that transitioned to remote learning  quickly, provided technology for all or some grades and performed real-time instruction, serve fewer historically marginalized students than those who didn't, according to a new report.

Philanthropy, nonprofits, government, partner on new child care resource -- $500,000 committed to support Allegheny County families

A new tool allows families to log onto a website and find open/available childcare facilities in Allegheny County

The Association for Supportive Child Care (ASCC) has been awarded $100,000 to establish a regional emergency fund to provide relief grants to home-based child care providers by Home Grown, a national collaborative of funders committed to improving

COVID-19 pandemic reveals the digital divide crisis still remains

Pittsburgh Public Schools starts online instruction on April 16 — but many kids can’t participate because they don’t have computers at home.

Building an online learning system from scratch for 23,000 students — many of whom don’t have access to laptops — would be difficult in the best circumstances. But to have to do it on the

Pittsburgh Public Schools Preparing For Online Instruction

As long as there have been students and schools there have been questions about relevancy.

“When you were in math class or chemistry class, you might have dealt with a series of problems that teachers had ...

Pittsburgh Readiness Institute will help students learn skills, attitudes and values needed to be good citizens and effective workers.

The Heinz Endowments was expected to announce Wednesday that it was investing $700,000 to launch an education initiative aimed at helping youth and young adults meet future employment and civic demands.

A program meant to diversify the ranks of teachers at the Pittsburgh Public Schools could soon be re-launched. The program was postponed in October after issues surfaced with the partner university selected by the district.

The New Pittsburgh Courier has learned that The Heinz Endowments has committed $10 million in funding over three years to support a prenatal to age 3 well-being initiative.

The Pittsburgh-based Heinz Endowments has announced its intention to invest $10 million over three years to enhance the well-being of young children in southwestern Pennsylvania. 

Includes early intervention plans, multi-generation approach, health and environment risk abatement

The Heinz Endowments has committed $10 million over three years for programs that target the health and well-being of children from prenatal to 3 years old and their families.

Michelle Figlar with the Heinz Endowments says she wants schools to serve multiple purposes. She envisions them as community centers to help families before their kids even enter kindergarten.

Pittsburgh Public Schools officials on Tuesday unveiled the early stages of a plan to “re-imagine” the district and tackle challenges with support from local government, foundations and higher education institutions.

The Allegheny County Health Department received a $200,000 grant from the Heinz Endowments to raise awareness about the county’s Maternal and Child Health program among black families and improve the ways it serves them.

Allegheny County should create a department dedicated to improving early childhood education and after-school programs, according to the report of a 25-member working group created in March by County Executive Rich Fitzgerald.

The Pittsburgh Public Schools district postponed a program that was intended to train current employees of color to be teachers after rescinding the collaboration with the university that was going to instruct those educators.

African American students make up 53 percent of the Pittsburgh Public Schools district, while White students make up 33 percent.

Pittsburgh Public Schools is launching a pilot program this school year that would enable classroom aides to become teachers and earn the required state certification, an initiative designed to narrow racial disparities between the district’s

Some communities refuse to just sit back and watch tens of thousands of children grow up in poverty — a circumstance that makes them more likely to face diminished educational and job prospects, violence, incarceration

The United Way of the Laurel Highlands officially launched its 2019 fundraising campaign at a breakfast event Thursday morning, and the organization’s leader said its goal is to raise more than $1.3 million before the

Kids love playing musical chairs. Around they go, and when the music stops, someone has a seat, and someone is standing.

A working group charged with examining potentially creating a county-wide Children’s Fund to support early learning and out-of-school-time programs is aiming to present recommendations to Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald in September.

Six area teenagers known for their commitment to activism and writing are in San Juan Puerto Rico as delegates to the International Congress of Youth Voices this month. The five-day conference will give the delegates

Roughly 13,000 babies are born every year in Allegheny County. County human services officials are working on an ambitious plan to reach out to the parents of all of them — shortly after they are born

Suspensions among 4th-6th graders are down at Woodland Hills School District. That can be attributed, in part, to a restorative practice program created by the University of Pittsburgh, according to school district administrators. 

A group of students are getting the opportunity to enhance their community, while gaining valuable lessons in teamwork and decision-making, through the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies’ Youth Philanthropy Internship program.

Connecting the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall, located at the top of a steep hillside, to Carnegie’s business district below has long been a dream for many. The Library Park project includes the

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, June 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On August 8, 130 accomplished young writers from around the world will meet with activists, political leaders, and other changemakers to learn and collaborate as they seek to make a

The Heinz Endowments announced Wednesday it is making a $1 million contribution to the Pittsburgh Promise scholarship program, bringing to $19.4 million the total donated over the program’s decade of existence.

The Heinz Endowments has made a $1 million donation to the Pittsburgh Promise scholarship program.

Soccer’s more than football. It can — and has — made a difference in people’s lives, thanks to enthusiasts like Justin Forzano.

The Heinz Endowments has made a significant grant to the Jewish Healthcare Foundation to help launch two new programs in 2019.

This week will kick off a series of six community meetings about early learning and out-of-school programs in Allegheny County, with an eye toward the potential creation of a countywide Children's Fund.

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald has appointed a working group to examine creating a Children's Fund to bolster early learning and out-of-school time programs for kids throughout the county.

MCKEESPORT, Pa. — Penn State Greater Allegheny is offering for the first time a blended associate’s degree in information sciences and technology (IST) that local residents can complete both on campus and online. The pilot,

The seven young women sat in a circle in the middle of the room. They giggled and teased each other. They slouched with their arms crossed tightly against their chests.

Like many Pittsburghers, I’m so proud of our city’s strength and resilience. Of how we’ve transformed our old industrial economy into one that is diversified and forward-looking. Of how, as home to a number of the

Talk of dozens of efforts to help disadvantaged kids had gone on for an hour Thursday when a soft, Scottish-accented voice piped up.

A multimillion dollar expansion project designed to help children with early education programs has been completed.

The 20 preschool children who came to the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, last week weren’t simply on a field trip. Instead, they are part of the first-ever early childhood class to be housed

A dedicated advocate for students and families in under-resourced Pittsburgh schools, Kenny Donaldson is passionate about improving students’ lives. As Associate Director of Strategic Programming and Initiatives at the University of Pittsburgh Center for Urban Education,

A new University of Pittsburgh study of Allegheny County schools shows severe racial disparities in out-of-school suspensions with a rate that is double for African-American students compared to their non-Black classmates.

New research released by the University of Pittsburgh says there’s a connection between suspensions, grades and whether a child ends up in the juvenile justice system

Black students in the Pittsburgh region are getting suspended at more than double the rate of their white classmates, according to a new study from the University of Pittsburgh.

PITTSBURGH (Newsradio 1020 KDKA) – As public school students head back to class for the start of another school year, a report out of the University of Pittsburgh finds glaring racial disparities in how those

The Heinz Endowments has given the Allegheny County Health Department a $200,000 grant to support its “Health Equity in Action” program.

It may turn out that few of the 28 students enrolled in this year’s All Star Code Summer Intensive program go into the production side of sports broadcasting, but the skills they are learning in

A county family care center that recently expanded into Penn Hills will host a week of events to celebrate its presence in the community.

Every weekday, kids stream into Kingdom Life Fellowship Pittsburgh for an after-school program, getting homework help and lessons, eating dinner and playing games for three hours before heading home.

At the very start of his training workshop on how to prevent sexual harassment, Jackson Katz asked the attendees to define leaders.

A strong late-afternoon sun slanted through the large windows as a group of high school students began to give short oral reports, some in quiet, halting voices, others in firm tones, about someone who inspired

Marc Cherna came to Pennsylvania from New Jersey to run Allegheny County’s Children, Youth and Families agency in 1996, a time when CYF was a national disgrace for endangering children rather than aiding vulnerable families.

Carnegie Mellon University has hit on an interesting strategy for predicting which industries are most likely to be affected by artificial intelligence in coming years — knowledge that has the potential to affect government policy,

In many of our communities in Allegheny County, there is a largely unrecognized contagious disease killing our children. Our communities are being exposed every day to this terrible disease, and we don’t have enough resources,

The fifth and sixth graders sat in hard metal chairs arranged in a wide circle on a concrete-floored classroom at Woodland Hills Intermediate School on Friday...

The Fred Rogers Co. is poised for expansion as a result of $3 million grant from the Heinz Endowments.

Three-year funding supports children’s ‘social-emotional learning initiatives,’ new content, advances in educational technology

“How do we preserve the tomorrows of our kids?” asked Flint, Mich., pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha at an event Wednesday sharing her ongoing advocacy for eliminating lead exposure in children, first sparked by her city’s water

Pittsburgh is usually ahead of its time. Occasionally we get reminded of this in surprising and satisfying ways.

A proposed coffee shop in the Plum High School library is gaining support from district officials. The intent of the coffee shop is to develop entrepreneurship, and have life-skills students run it to obtain hands-on

PITTSBURGH, PA September 13, 2017 – The Heinz Endowments today announced the appointment of Mac Howison as Program Officer for Creative Learning. Mr. Howison will take up his new position on October 3, 2017, and

Pittsburgh will translate messaging from its public safety departments into Arabic, Chinese, Nepalese, Spanish and Swahili as part of an effort to ensure that immigrants and refugees can access city services.

Pittsburgh's Public Safety department is angling to strengthen ties — and trust — with refugee and immigrant communities through a multicultural program.

Ronald Joseph recalled waking up anxious every Friday for two months straight. The chief technology officer of Pennsylvania's second-largest school district described having "a hold-your-breath moment" each week during summer 2016 as he met with

The Community Foundation of Westmoreland County has awarded grants totaling $50,000 to local nonprofits through its Youth Philanthropy Internship Program.

Carnegie Mellon University's Advanced Robotics Manufacturing Institute will be the first anchor tenant to set up shop in a former Hazelwood steel mill, officials said Monday.

It’s amazing how much progress can happen in 27 days. “You were scared to let go of the wall, and now you’re motorboating and jumping in,” Obama Academy swim coach Mark Rauterkus says to his

Working through the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies and funded by Pittsburgh’s Heinz Endowments, two teams of interns have $25,000 each to grant community organizations looking to better engage and prepare their county’s youth. The

Plum High School's library may get new furniture and upgrades with grant money that a student group secured.

The BMe Community Genius Awards were held on Friday night at the Heinz History Center in the Strip District, honoring black men in the Pittsburgh community who are shining lights for those around them.

Pennsylvania's wait list for state-subsidized child care could climb to a historic high of 19,000 children under the budget plan approved by the state House, a spokeswoman for Gov. Tom Wolf warned Monday in Pittsburgh.

Two nonprofits are launching a program to help Pittsburgh-area schools and child care centers get rid of lead and radon hazards.

Women for a Healthy Environment (WHE) and the Green Building Alliance (GBA) announced at a joint press conference Thursday a new initiative, 1,000 Hours a Year, that will provide funding to local schools and early

Children spend an estimated 1,000 hours every year in schools, early-education centers and after-school programs. While parents can work to protect their children from environmental hazards like lead and radon at home, they have little

Superintendent Patrick Graczyk didn’t sleep for 48 hours after he had received his school district's lead testing results.

Teams from the Allegheny County Health Department soon will be on the ground in neighborhoods hardest hit by gun violence to try to stymie what officials see as a public health crisis.